A Lot of Catching Up to Do

As I'm sitting here looking at my sunburnt arms, I'm realizing that the last time I wrote on this blog was when my arms were a constant burnt color from the Bahamas.  There have been so many things that have happened since then that I feel so bad I haven't documented yet.  One being the birth of our second child.  Another, that we moved to Dominica which is a third world island in the West Indies.  And, I also completely left out a whole five months of living in Idaho with my parents. It's time for me to catch up.

First, Emi:)

Oh how we love our sweet little Emi girl.  On November 19, 2012, I went in for a check up at the doctors office to see if I was dilated at all.  I had been doing everything I could think of (raking leaves for four hours, zumba class, bouncing on a birth ball, massaging my ankles, hiking, and lots of walking) to try to induce myself into labor so that I could have her vaginally instead of by C-section.  I saw the nurse practitioner and upon feeling my stomach she said, "I think your baby is turned sideways and so you won't be able to have her vaginally anyways.  Would you like to schedule a C-section."  With seemingly no choice, I said yes, and because of the holidays, they wanted to do it that day.  I drove home as quickly as possible, informed my mom and sister Natalie that I was going to have my baby in a few hours, got things in order, called Boyd, cried from shock, then left for the hospital.


They put me into a room right away, got me all hooked up, and then told me I was going to have to wait until the operating room was available.  We were there for about an hour when my doctor came in.  I told him about my visit with the nurse practitioner and has decided to check and see how things were. After he felt my stomach, he told me that Emi was actually not turned sideways and I could try for a vaginally delivery still.  Now What?!  I was all hooked up and ready to have my baby, but I was still hoping to have a V-back.  Should I go home and wait for my body to maybe go into labor.  Because Keido was a C-section, they wouldn't be able to induce me, and they wouldn't let me go very much past my due date.  Should I try for it, or should I just continue with the surgery and have Emi that day?

I kept asking people for advice on what I should do, but everyone just said, "It's your decision."  Not much help.  So, after an hour of thinking about it and still feeling very unsure, I decided to go ahead with the C-section.  It took a little longer, and then they wheeled me into the O.R.

My mom was there with me for everything, and she carried Boyd on the computer so he could be there too.  When they entered the O.R., my mom handed the computer off to the doctors, and they took Boyd in and showed him around.   It was such a blessing to still have him there, even though he was thousands of miles away.  The surgery went really smoothly, and within about twenty minutes, they had little Emi out into the world for the first time.

I saw her for just a moment before they took her back to get cleaned up.  Emi had lots of black hair on the back of her head.  She was so beautiful and I couldn't wait to hold her.  She weighed 6 lbs. 13 ounces and was 19 inches long. They finished stitching me up and wheeled me to my new room.  It wasn't too long before Emi joined me.  She was hungry and latched on like a pro.  That night ended up being a blur of throwing up from the pain killers every thirty minutes and feeding little Emi.  It's a good thing my mom is best mom in the world.  She watched over little Emi and I all night long and did everything for both of us.  In fact, that's how it was for the next three days in the hospital.  Then she kept taking care of us when we got home!  What a great mom!  She also took care of Keido.  Heavenly Father definitely spoiled me when he sent me to Louise Larson:)

(Emi's first best friend...Grandma!)

From the very beginning, Emi has been a sweet baby.  She has the cutest little pouty face and soft cry.  We thought that she was so nice and sleepy because she had a little bit of jaundice, but it's gone now and she is still a very calm, sweet baby.  She is content most of the time to just lounge in someone's arms.  As long as she is full, and her diaper is clean, she just likes to hang out.  She is such a blessing to our family.  I guess that she is just living up to the meaning of her name, "Beautiful Blessing."

Keido loves Emi too... most of the time.  He calls her, "My baby," and, "Little Emi Dirl."  He also likes to give her kisses and hold her on his lap.  There have been a few scares where Keido tried to smother her with a pillow, pull her off the bed, and bite her arm, but for the most part Keido has really been a champ through everything.  We were blessed to have Natalie and her boys come just before I went to give birth.  Keido was able to make good friends with Wyatt and Clayton and spent time with them during the day.  He came to the hospital to visit Emi and I a couple times, and was really a big boy about it all.  He even complimented me about my hospital robe and said, "Nice shirt mom."

Sweet Emi is also a big eater.  Boyd and I purposely made her initials E.A.T.  Since her birth, she has been sprouting like a little weed in all directions.  She has a great double chin, lots of thigh rolls, and a major muffin top.  Lately, she has enjoyed sitting and chatting with me.  Her smile and laugh brightens our whole house.

Also, Emi's cousin Ella was born just three days after Emi.  As Jeana was in the pushing stage of her labor, we were headed out of the hospital to go home.   We stopped in her room, wished them all good luck, and then waited to here how things went after that.  It was so fun to have Jeana and Ella spend time with us at the Larson home.  Babies pretty much took over everything, and consumed our time for those first couple of weeks.  I'm so excited for them to grow up together though.  It's great to have a cousin close in age.

(Ella and Emi)

Second, Dominica

(Portsmouth, Dominica.  The medical school is on the coast just to the right of these boats.)

(Batibou Beach)

The day after Christmas, Boyd, Keido, Emi, and I embarked on another wild adventure.  We flew out to Maryland to spend a week there with Boyd's family, and then we dragged our six suitcases, three carry-ons, bike stroller, and two kids to the airport to fly to Dominica.  People looked at us like we were crazy!  However, now that I'm here, I wish we could have brought even more stuff.

Well, we spent a night in a really dingy hotel in Puerto Rico, and then landed in Melville Hall, Dominica the next day.  The flight over the island as we landed reminded me of the part in Jurassic Park where they are flying in the helicopter.  It was so beautiful.  They must have filmed that movie here:)  After landing, we waited in a customs line for about an hour, and then found that our luggage didn't fit on our airplane, so we waited another three hours with other students to get it.  By the time we left the airport, we were all exhausted.  The ride to our apartment was a gut wrencher, but we made it without anybody throwing up.  Yay! Our new home!!

We have absolutely loved this place so far.  After having lived in the Bahamas, this place is a dream for a med school wife.  The grocery store is a minute walk from us.  Campus is two minutes walk.  The beach is three minutes walk.  And, all of the spouses live close together.  Nice!!!  Most prices for things are still the same: $10 for a gallon of milk (U.S. dollars), $8 for a jar of grape jelly, $75 for a box of 150 diapers.  Yikes!  But, the saving grace here is that they have a market every Saturday where you can by cheap produce.  I love that part.

Keido and Emi also love it here.  There are lots of little kids for Keido to play with.  We started a joy school one day a week, and on the other days we go to the beach, the pool, the playground, or just get together with other families.  He has finally started going to nursery by himself, and has been growing in all kinds of ways since we got here.  Keido has always been a good helper, but now he helps me do jobs like peeling bananas to freeze for smoothies, gathering mangos from the trees on campus, and snapping beans for dinner.  I thought he might have a hard time transitioning to the  island, but so far he has done really well.

(Enjoying the waves at Batibou)

(Our island cruiser)

Last, but not least, Idaho

(Grandma and Grandpa with Emi and Keido)

When I think back at the time that Boyd and I spent apart, I think two things: I feel so blessed to have been able to live with my parents again. And, I'm very thankful for google chatting:)

My parents are the best!!!  I feel like it was such a blessing to be back under their roof again.  Keido loved being with "Danma" and "Danpa."  Grandma and Grandpa were so good to come home from work and play with Keido.  My mom also spent a lot of time taking Keido to the dump and various construction sites so he could watch the big trucks work.  Even now, he associates ice-cream cones to going to the dump with Grandma, because she would take him to McDonald's for ice-cream afterwards.    Keido found my dad to be a really special friend.  He would always visit him in his office and take him pieces of things that he was eating.  If I couldn't get Keido to go to sleep, I just had to send my Dad up to tell him to lay down, and Keido would do it.

(Working hard with Grandpa)

Keido grew a lot during our time in Idaho.  He went from saying maybe twenty words, to speaking in full sentences.  Boyd was shocked when he came home at how much Keido had progressed.  We also got Keido to finally sleep through the night, which was much harder than I ever thought it would be.  He loved my parents yard and spent hours and hours playing in their sandbox.  When Thanksgiving came around, my mom bought wiggle cars for all the boys, and Keido had a blast on them.  I guess we all loved them.  We took them to the church gym, my mom's school, and Keido and Grandma would ride them around the kitchen table.  (I loved watching my mom scoot around on one of those.)

(Trunk-or-Treat at the church)

There definitely was a crazy couple weeks in Idaho:)  As soon as Emi was about to arrive, everyone showed up for Thanksgiving.  We ended up with a packed house, two new babies in the family, and our annual family Christmas party.  Poor mom didn't sleep for weeks.  It was so fun though.

I miss Idaho, miss my parents, and miss having Keido spend time with his Grandparents.  However, we love it here in Dominica, look forward for more good times to come, and can't wait to have my parents visit us here in October.

So there...I'm kind of caught up. However, I started this post a couple months ago, so now have way more that I need to write.  Oh well, at least it's something.